"No House member, no senator, nobody in government should be above the law of the land, period," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said.

Senate leader breaks with House bosses over constitutionality

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a break with his counterparts in the House, the Senate's leader said Sunday the FBI was within its right to search the office of a congressman under investigation in a bribery case.

"No House member, no senator, nobody in government should be above the law of the land, period," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said.

The Tennessee Republican, was responding to the search conducted May 20-21 in the office of Rep. William Jefferson, a Louisiana Democrat.

FBI agents carted away computer and other records in their pursuit of evidence that Jefferson accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in exchange for helping set up business deals in Africa.

It was the first time that a warrant had been used to search a lawmaker's office in the history of the Congress.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican, and Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California responded with a rare joint statement, protesting that the FBI had not notified them and that the search violated the Constitution's separation of power protections.

Frist said he examined the provision closely and talked the issue over with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. He concluded that the FBI acted appropriately.

"I think there's allegations of criminal activity, and the American people need to have the law enforced."

The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which plans a hearing Tuesday on the constitutionality of the search, said the FBI overstepped its authority. Rep. James Sensenbrenner compared the search of a congressman's office to a Capitol Police raid of the Oval Office.

"This debate is not over whether Congressman Jefferson is guilty of a criminal offense," Sensenbrenner said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "He cannot use the constitutional immunity of Congress to shield himself from that or any evidence of that. But it is about the ability of the Congress to be able to do its job free of coercion from the executive branch."

Hastert complained directly to President Bush and demanded that the FBI return the materials. Bush struck a compromise Thursday, ordering that the documents be sealed for 45 days until congressional leaders and the Justice Department agree on what to do with them -- a move that Frist said he supported "to let things settle down."

Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, said there needs to be "hard look" at whether the FBI violated the Constitution. But he said the FBI has raided judge's chambers before, so there is precedent for crossing branches of government for searches.

He also said he wasn't sure the "speech and debate" protections in Article 1, Section 6 of the Constitution were violated, as some of have argued.

That section states that members of Congress "shall in all cases, except treason, felony and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of their respective houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any speech or debate in either house, they shall not be questioned in any other place."

"I'm not sure that you can stretch it to apply to this situation," Durbin said. "In the next several weeks, we ought to take a hard look at it. I'm not going to rule it in or out at this moment."

Before Bush's compromise, the showdown last week led the House leaders to threaten budgetary retaliation against the Justice Department, a senior administration official told The Associated Press on Saturday.

Justice officials, including Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, raised the prospect of resigning if the department were asked to return documents that FBI agents took from Jefferson's office.

I'm sorry but I had to post this. This is just to funny.

"No House member, no senator, nobody in government should be above the law of the land, period,"

Whata hoot. They get better everyday!!!!!!!!!!

_________________"All men are created equal until you become a liberal" - Rush Limbaugh

It only took frist a couple of days and a meeting with gonzo to assure him that it would only be used against dems and that he definately will not be searched for his connection to k street or the medi-care drug bill or the :

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is facing questions from the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission about his sale of stock in his family's hospital company one month before its price fell sharply.

The Tennessee lawmaker, who is the Senate's top Republican and a likely candidate for president in 2008, ordered his portfolio managers in June to sell his family's shares in HCA Inc., the nation's largest hospital chain, which was founded by Frist's father and brother.

I think Congress should get a search warrant and have the Capitol police raid Dick Cheney's office for evidence about his Energy Task Force, the outing of Valerie Plame, the missing $9 billion in Iraq, etc.

"No House member, no senator, nobody in government should be above the law of the land, period," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said.

That just cracked me up. No one but one person. ANd we have already made that very clear.
I think shoe reprted: US President George W Bush authorised the leak of classified material to the media to defend the invasion of Iraq, a former White House aide has testified.

Well theres one thing above the law.

"The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans", using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.

Huh. Theres another.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has uncovered over 100 violations of wiretapping and intelligence gathering rules in the past two years, including using wiretaps that exceeded the scope authorized by court warrant and obtaining communications with an expired warrant.

Shall I go on? Nobody's above the law huh?

_________________"All men are created equal until you become a liberal" - Rush Limbaugh

"No House member, no senator, nobody in government should be above the law of the land, period," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said.

That just cracked me up. No one but one person. ANd we have already made that very clear.I think shoe reprted: US President George W Bush authorised the leak of classified material to the media to defend the invasion of Iraq, a former White House aide has testified.

Well theres one thing above the law.

"The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans", using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.

Huh. Theres another.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has uncovered over 100 violations of wiretapping and intelligence gathering rules in the past two years, including using wiretaps that exceeded the scope authorized by court warrant and obtaining communications with an expired warrant.

Shall I go on? Nobody's above the law huh?

What are you so upset about? Is it this little blurb in the Bill of rights?

Amendment IV. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Oh, you liburls, and your outdated "Bill of Rights". Ha Ha. Haven't you ever heard of 911? Your stupid "Bill of Rights" became null and void that day. You liburls just don't understand that we can't fight the terrorists as long as that rag is in effect.

You must really hate America to put an old piece of paper written by some ignorant fools over two hundred years ago over the safety being offered to you by your current benevolent leaders.